Don Skakie

HB 2559 would allow non-medical home cultivation of marijuana in Washington state

By Michael Bachara
Hemp News

On Monday, January 15, the Washington state legislature will discuss the adult home grow bill, HB 2559, in the Commerce and Gaming Committee. The hearing, which is scheduled to be in House Hearing Rm C at 1:30pm in the John L. O'Brien Building in Olympia, WA, is sure to bring cannabis advocates from across the state to the Capitol.

Voters won't get the chance this fall to have their say on whether the Washington should keep changes made by the Legislature this spring to the state's medical marijuana laws.

Organizers of a petition drive to place a referendum on November's ballot reported they won't be turning in signatures by the deadline this week.

"I regret to report that the Referendum 76 effort has fallen short of the number of signatures gathered to qualify for the November ballot," organizer Don Skakie posted on the R76 NO Facebook page on Tuesday. "This was made known to the Elections Office yesterday afternoon and has appeared in the press already.

"While things are bad for patients, the struggle continues," Skakie said. "Please support Real Legalization through Initiative 739 for home growing, collecting signatures through December 31, 2015."

The secretary of state's office on Monday confirmed that the referendum had fallen short, reports Jim Camden at The Spokesman-Review.

R-76 would have challenged changes in Washington's medical marijuana law, putting medicinal cannabis under the regulation of the Liquor Control Board, currently in charge of recreational marijuana industry.

Medical marijuana dispensaries and growers will have to be licensed; the Catch-22 is that no licenses are currently available, and the path to legality for the shops is murky at best.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are slated for extinction in Washington state, thanks to the passage of SB 5052 by the Legislature. But the R76 NO campaign would head off 5052 at the pass, essentially nullifying the law through the voter referendum process.

The R76 NO campaign, representing as it does a way out of the death sentence imposed upon the medical marijuana community in Washington as we've known it for the past 17 years, is gaining a lot of support statewide, but one recurring question has been where supporters can get signature sheets so that they can help the referendum qualify for the November ballot. Due to the untiring efforts of Washington activist Don Skakie, medical marijuana supporters can now go to any full service FedEx location in the state and get printed, double-sided, 11x17 Referendum 76 signature sheets for just 12 cents each.

According to Skakie, all you have to do is ask for File Retrieval Code 2EE4248 under Account Discount #0589281101 to print the signature sheets. "We have been given permission to use this account from the Georgetown Cultural Arts Center," Skakie said. "YOU MUST PAY FOR THESE COPIES, but the activity will benefit the Center by helping them meet their annual minimum purchases to keep their account open at these prices. Go and do great things!"

According to Paul Stanford, who heads up the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH) and The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF Clinics, which has authorized more patients in Washington than anybody else), which owns Hemp News, if 500 medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state contributed $1,000 apiece, a voter initiative or referendum could qualify for the ballot, potentially saving medical cannabis in the state.

According to Stanford, who has plenty of experience on the political scene, $500,000 is the minimum amount needed to gather enough signatures to qualify. Will Washington's medical marijuana community step up to the plate?

"It's a matter of survival," Stanford said. "The clock is ticking, and it's time for the leaders of Washington's medical marijuana community to step up and take action. CRRH supports the preservation of safe access for Washington state patients."

"We authorized about 35,000 patients last year in Washington State," Stanford said."History, we've helped about 100,000 patients in Washington State get their cards since 2003, when we started helping patients in Washington. We started in Oregon in 2001, and we had people coming to our clinics there saying 'We need a doctor in Washington.

"We want to uphold our responsibility to the patients of Washington," Stanford said. "We're going to have petitions in our offices for patients. We've pledged $1,000 to the campaign, and we're going to be donating more."

Voters in Washington State Hope to End Hemp and Cannabis Prohibition in 2011

By Michael Bachara, Hemp News Correspondent

Members of the organization Sensible Washington have filed their highly-anticipated hemp and cannabis initiative.

The initiative, which would remove all state criminal and civil penalties for the possession, use and sale of hemp and cannabis, was filed in the Secretary of State's office in Olympia, Washington on January 26th. The group has changed last year's initiative to reflect concerns about civil regulations of marijuana and their new initiative has language that clearly directs the State Legislature to regulate the responsible adult use of marijuana. They feel the best way to end prohibition is to simply repeal prohibition language.

Proponents argue that cannabis is safer than alcohol, and its prohibition has failed.

Polling this year affirms that they can win in Washington as soon as legalization is put to the popular vote. Washington is one of the better polling states in the country on the topic of legalizing cannabis, with 52% of the public favoring legal marijuana and only 35% opposed statewide, according to the Sensible Washington website.